Evanston's Premier Source for Manifesting Your Dreams

I just wanted to let you know, I am stepping away from my role at Abundant Heart Center to give my energy to my new business, EMERGE: Embrace Your Truth.

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Abundant Heart has been a very necessary segment of my road and journey. Co-creating all of the fascinating services that ClareShale and I channeled from the Universe last year was like nothing I had ever before dreamed or conceived of, and it has been absolutely instrumental in my own growth.

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I have equally enjoyed being a witness for ClareShale’s transformation in all of this – she is a powerful shaman and leader – and of course I have been so honored and blessed to enjoy the growth and forward movement of our amazing clients. Our clients, truly, have been more astonishing than I could ever have hoped for – and to you, dear clients, I also say – oh my goodness – from the deepest well of my heart….I could never thank you enough for being You. I love you! ♥

I couldn’t resist the reference to this fun, vintage motto from the 80’s!

But it’s true. Life’s a Beach – if you intend for it to be one!

We create our day-to-day living from what we decide to be, do, and act upon in every moment.

What if we all decided to relax, regroup and enjoy?

I remember many a hot summer’s day of childhood spent at Lake Michigan – the coolness of her magic waters, the warmth from the sun – the sudden gray of the sky as the sun would temporarily disappear behind the clouds. Laying on a blanket waiting for the golden light to reappear. The tropical scent of 70’s suntan lotion flowing through the air.

There was not much to worry about. There still isn’t. If we want it.

Relaxing, resting, playing. My favorite was to turn cartwheels in the wet sand at the shore over and over, and then turn around and look back at the prints that were made by hands and feet – hands and feet….and then, go get a treat from the ice-cream truck, or a snow cone from one of the vendors with their cool snow-cone vending bicycle contraptions – choosing the flavors and watching the bright colors of the syrup fill the frosty cone with beauty.

Now again I am deciding, in the energy of resting, relaxing, playing – I want it.

While at the pet store this past fall with my family, my 6-year-old daughter had an encounter with a puppy which has shaped her and stayed with her for all these months, and I imagine for many more to come – possibly even her entire life.

We were wandering through the store checking all the animals out, when she came to me with tears in her eyes. “That little puppy is all by himself – he’s all alone!” She was legitimately full-on crying in the store as she pulled me over to his cage. We decided to ask for a visit with him even though we knew we couldn’t take him home.

She and this puppy were amazing together. He was soooooo excited to be with her, I could instantly feel their connection. What a little love he was! Jumping all around, licking her face, puking on the floor and eating it up, laying on the ground. To be honest, I’ve never seen anything like it. We did in the end, have to say good bye to him, holding his memory forever in our hearts.

We found out through animal communication that his name is “Henry.” So we often talk about him, imagine him in his new home with his forever family and just know that he can feel our love even though were far apart. Just last night, as a matter of fact, we were sending him love and remembering him while getting ready for bed. She has a stuffed dog that looks just like him, a great cuddle-buddy.

Some day we hope to meet him at a park or on the beach, or maybe it won’t be until we meet “over the rainbow bridge” as they say. In any case, the two of them will always be together in spirit. Thank you Henry, wherever you are!

Presently in my life Integrity is about doing what I know to be right in my heart for my Self.

And what I know to be right in my heart for my Self means three things. One is making the choice to be happy. Two is taking action to implement all of the amazingness I have created in my current life – the amazingness waiting just behind the curtains for the big reveal. And three is flowing constantly and consistently towards my Dreams – my joy-instilled goals.

I have the knowledge to write about these things. I have the wherewithal to teach and coach others how to be in Integrity on their own path with these things.

My challenge: Integrating these things into my own life on a daily basis, even when things feel hard – even when I feel like giving up.

With a business currently in transition, and being in the state of letting go of everything up till now (so I may experience the pure state of manifesting what I am creating in the present moment), I am experiencing the daily challenge of remembering.

Remembering that all of this experience is beautiful – remembering that manifesting works best when our emotional state is clear and clean of past residue – remembering that the Dreams I am flowing towards are already here – it is simply for me to allow my Self to flow into their waiting embrace.

To be in my Integrity, I know I must integrate the state of trust, and embrace the state of knowing my truth. To be in my Integrity I know I must truly feel my power, and love my whole self – the yin and the yang – and to allow my voice to be free and sing what I need to sing.

That heartwarming feeling you get when you help another, even just holding the door for a stranger, is connected to a deep place within your very humanity. As it turns out, scientists are discovering that humans share the impulse to help with chimpanzees, our closest genetic animal friends – and that impulse is connected to a well-researched brain hormone.

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Recently I watched a small segment of the PBS series The Human Spark (hosted by Alan Alda, yessss!). The video clip shows an experiment designed to compare the altruistic response present in chimps and human 18 month-old infants. As you can imagine, the cute factor is quite high! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK8rKKp-vP0

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Basically what they found is that both humans and chimps will go out of their way to help another. Felix Warneken at the Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology sums it up well: “Potential altruistic motivation to act on behalf of others is something that is shared between chimps and humans, and therefore something that maybe was already a characteristic of our common ancestor.”

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There are many reasons I can think of that this makes so much sense. Being of support for others is simply what being in community is all about. We are a social species and the well-being of those around us directly affects our own well-being.

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Another super-cool factor in this realm is the hormone that helps us build trust: Oxytocin, also called the “cuddle” hormone.

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This hormone is released during important social occasions such as communal meals, breastfeeding, parent/child bonding time, physical contact with other beings (humans and animals) and not surprisingly during moments of altruistic behavior.

The next time you are feeling anxious, stressed out or frazzled, you may be in need of a dose of oxytocin! If you can, get yourself into a cuddle situation as quickly as possible. If animal or human friends are not close by, try letting someone go ahead of you at the store, holding the door for a stranger or even making a donation to a trusted non-profit.

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What are your favorite ways to connect? Let us know if this exercise is helpful for you in bringing you through to a state of Trust in the universe.

It can be seen as ironic that one of the things that brings me to stillness is music. Logically, music is the opposite of quiet – as it is made up of sound.

Energetically, however, everything is energy and has energy – including “quiet”!

And being brought into the energy of quiet allows for dreaming – and dreaming allows for creating – and music is one of the most innately creative things made by a soul.

So, intuitively, it doesn’t surprise me at all that the mesmerism of certain melodies often brings me deepest into the sound of silence.

A song which pops instantly to mind when feeling into the stillness of music is “Pandora” by the Cocteau Twins.

Listening to Pandora brings me directly into a state of feeling lightly blanketed by a sprinkling of snow in afternoon sunlight – only it is not a cold snow. It is tepid, healing, perfect; the illumination of the sparkle of each flake echoing through the mirrors of my soul.

This song performs a Soul Retrieval (a form of shamanic healing) on me each time I allow myself to fully relax into the harmonizing care of its trance.

I emerge from bed at 6:45, and then it’s a two-hour dance of love bringing my children from home state of mind to school state of mind. From there my day unfolds in such a large variety of ways, each day of the week being different from the next, each week holding its own magic. It feels like my life is a grand and glorious improvisational aerial dance, complete with a flying trapeze (and safety nets of course, lots of them!).

This feeling, that my life is an aerial dance, began to emerge over this past summer and has been increasing in intensity and duration since then. I am still in observation mode, not sure I totally understand it yet, not sure if I like it or want it to dissipate. Can I attribute this to planetary shifts or is it simply a phase of life? Maybe both?

This new “dance” energy does feel important for me to master somehow – its lessons extend beyond the wisdom I am gaining from raising a family, strengthening my community and enjoying my career. My intuition tells me that the particular muscle I am being called to develop right now is: Faith. Faith in myself. Faith in the perfection of what IS. Faith that all my needs will be met in all situations if I follow my intuition, love myself enough to set and stand in clear boundaries, and follow the bright light of what brings me true JOY.

I have, out of necessity, begun to intentionally strengthen my Faith in the grand directors of this aerial dance, who I’m pretty sure are my own spirit in close cahoots with the mysterious workings of the Universe. I am finding that in order to move forward, I must trust that the platform will be there when I release my grip and fly through the air, grabbing lunch and dry cleaning as I gracefully twirl onto my feet. Sometimes I perform beautifully and gracefully, not missing a beat. Of course, there are also those days when I completely miss my cues and end up all turned around; but that’s the learning process in action, I suppose.

I so appreciate you taking the time to walk through this with me. I know that we are all connected in ways I don’t totally comprehend, so it is highly probable that you have danced though the air in your own life as well. I welcome your feedback and would love to hear about your experience!